I have bought a 8-cavity .22 cal aluminium mold from MP mold and started doing some casting last week. Upon opening the mold, the slugs always drop out by themselves but the lead mass on top of the sprue plate always stays there and I had to pull it out by using a piler. In all youtube videos on bullet casting I have watched, that piece of lead always drops out by itself. May I know how it is achieved ? I prep the mold by coating the cavity with carbon but I have not done anything to the sprue plate except for lubricating the pivot. should I coat the spruce plate with carbon as well to help releasing ?
newbie question on slug casting
- Thread starter airgunfans
- Start date
I have been casting boolets for many years. This is a simple fix. What is happening is your sprue plate is not hot enough. I use a torch to heat up my sprue plate when I start casting. The act of casting will keep it hot enough after that.
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Thanks for the reply. I am heating the mold on the stove together with the sprue plate sitting on the top. Should I flip it over to get the sprue plate facing the flame ?
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Just a tip: if you look under the sprue cutter with the attached sprue still in place, is the lead kind of smeared across the holes? That will mechanically hold that sprue in place. Let the mold cool a little bit before you smack the sprue plate. It should be a clean cut off the top of the pellet.
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I haven't checked it but this explanation makes a lot of sense. I should have mentioned that I was using pure lead for casting so the metal is more prone to being smeared.
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Another thing to check is the clearance between the mold and plate . By shinning a light with the plate closed from the back side if you can see light it’s too loose .
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